The Lead March 26, 2021 - LeadingAge Illinois

Life Plan Communities/CCRC:
LeadingAge National on Spring Reopening for Life Plan Communities

Nursing and Rehabilitation:
LeadingAge Media Materials for Nursing Homes
Policies and Technology for Interoperability and Burden Reduction

Technology:
Register Today for 2021 Collaborative Care HIT Virtual Summit
LeadingAge CAST Debuts Data Analytics Selection Tool
University of Illinois Health App Study

Top Stories:

From the Desk of Karen Messer, President and CEO:
Today is your last chance to take the LeadingAge Provider Relief Fund Survey. Help make the case to Congress about how–and how much more you might need to get through the pandemic. Please complete this survey as soon as you can to share your experience.

IDPH Weekly Meeting Update
LeadingAge Illinois and the other associations had the weekly meeting with the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) yesterday afternoon, centered around COVID-19 issues.

Here is what was discussed:

Olmstead/Williams and Colbert Consent Decree:
Ali Johnson, olmstead compliance officer at the Illinois Department of Human Services (DHS) reported on the requirement for Cook County nursing homes to submit their monthly census and voluntary/involuntary discharge information. It is to be collected monthly for an understanding of who the class members are. IDPH is required to ensure any class member is first offered home and community based services before being discharged.

Long Term Care Pharmacies in the Vaccination Program:
United RX (Hillside and Carbondale) has been added to the program. Others being considered are:

Care One RX
Critical Care Pharmacy
Extended Care
Mac RX
RExperts
Senior Care

Outbreak:
Dr. Catherine Counard, chief medical officer at the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH), reported that there has been an outbreak at one facility in particular in which vaccination uptake was low. Of the 25 infected, just five were vaccinated. Dr. Counard also encouraged short-term rehabilitation centers to offer vaccinations.

Visitations:

24 hour screening must be done on indoor and outdoor screenings.
IDPH discourages asking visitors of their vaccination status as that is personal health information.
Visitors who have flown internationally must quarantine.
In general, facilities must allow for visitation at all times. It is a residents rights issue. Scheduling is encouraged.
Ombudsman Office is hearing of some facilities offering very limited visiting hours.

Legislative Update
We have now been through another week of the Spring Session. When the legislature adjourns today they will go on Spring Break for two weeks. This week was another week of discussing bills with legislators and attending virtual hearings. You can view our 2021 Legislative Tracker in the LeadingAge Illinois Advocacy Center on the association website. With member input, we have taken positions on several pieces of legislation.

Here’s a few updates from this week:

HB3899:
This is our joint legislation with the Illinois Health Care Association (IHCA). The goal of this piece of legislation is to reform Medicaid rates in order to incentivize quality care and proper staffing within nursing homes. The bill has been assigned to the House Appropriations-Human Services Committee for a hearing today. LeadingAge Illinois and IHCA met with State Representative Tom Demmer (R-90th District; Dixon), deputy minority leader, this week to request his support in moving the legislation. Members have also filed committee slips of support and made contact with legislators on the committee to urge support.

SB72:
A trailer bill to HB3360 was introduced in House Amendments #1 (HCA) and #2 (HFA) to SB72.

In addition to members contacting the Governor’s Office urging a veto of HB3360, members with legislators on the House Executive Committee contacted their legislators urging a “No” vote on House Committee Amendment #1. Members also completed witness slips to oppose this legislation. LeadingAge Illinois opposed the Committee Amendment in the House Executive Committee. Amendment #1 did, however, pass out of the Executive Committee (9-6) despite heavy opposition from the health care sector.

The following day, House Floor Amendment #2 (became the bill) was introduced and passed the House by a 64-40 vote.

On Thursday, the Governor vetoed HB3360. Shortly after, SB72 passed the Illinois General Assembly. It will now head to the Governor.

Here is what the passed bill looks like:

In all actions brought to recover damages for personal injury or wrongful death resulting from or occasioned by the conduct of any other person or entity, whether by negligence, willful and wanton misconduct, intentional conduct, or strict liability of the other person or entity, the plaintiff shall recover prejudgment interest on all damages, except punitive damages, sanctions, statutory attorney’s fees, and statutory costs, set forth in the judgment.
Prejudgment interest shall begin to accrue on the date the action is filed (rather than HB3360 language of the date the defendant has notice of the injury from the incident itself or a written notice).
If the plaintiff voluntarily dismisses the action and refiles, the accrual of prejudgment interest shall be tolled from the date the action is voluntarily dismissed to the date the action is refiled.
In entering judgment for the plaintiff in the action, the court shall add to the amount of the judgment interest calculated at the rate of 6% (HB3360 was 9% and HCA1 was 7%) per annum on the amount of the judgment, minus punitive damages, sanctions, statutory attorney’s fees, and statutory costs.
If the judgment is greater than the amount of the highest written settlement offer made by the defendant within 12 months after the later of the effective date of this amendatory Act of the 102nd General Assembly or the filing of the action and not accepted by the plaintiff within 90 days after the date of the offer or rejected by the plaintiff, interest added to the amount of judgment shall be an amount equal to interest calculated at the rate of 6% per annum on the difference between the amount of the judgment, minus punitive damages, sanctions, statutory attorney’s fees, and statutory costs, and the amount of the highest written settlement offer.
If the judgment is equal to or less than the amount of the highest written settlement offer made by the defendant within 12 months after the later of the effective date of this amendatory Act of the 102nd General Assembly or the filing of the action and not accepted by the plaintiff within 90 days after the date of the offer or rejected by the plaintiff, no prejudgment interest shall be added to the amount of the judgment.
Withdrawal of a settlement offer by defendant shall not be considered a rejection of the offer by the plaintiff.
Notwithstanding any other provision of this subsection, prejudgment interest shall accrue for no longer than 5 years.
For any personal injury or wrongful death occurring before the effective date of this amendatory Act of the 102nd General Assembly, the prejudgment interest shall begin to accrue on the later of the date the action is filed or the effective date of this amendatory Act of the 102nd General Assembly.
Effective June 21, 2021.

Although the veto of HB3360 was an advocacy victory, LeadingAge Illinois opposed SB72, even as a scaled down version.

HB1776:
We met with the sponsor this week to express our opposition and concerns on this legislation. LeadingAge Illinois and the other associations expressed various concerns on requiring nursing homes to annually publish Type “AA”, Type “A”, and Type “B” violations received prominently on their website. Currently, no other health care provider has this type of requirement. Additionally, there are cases in which a nursing home does not have a website. We will continue to discuss these concerns with the sponsor.

SB473:
We met with the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) this week to get clarification on this piece of legislation, which is one of their two bills this session. After receiving feedback from members, we have taken a neutral stance on this legislation, which deals with the publishing of a list of distressed facilities.

SB330:
This bill advanced, amended, out of a Senate Committee this week. It amends the Illinois Housing Development Act, adding sections:

Sec. 13.1. Form for local agencies.
Sec. 15-178. Reduction in assessed value for affordable rental housing construction or rehabilitation.

The bill provides for a reduced valuation that applies through December 31, 2031. The special assessment program applies in counties with 3 million or more inhabitants, effective immediately.

If you have any questions on the above legislation or any other public policy matter, please contact Jason Speaks.

Weekly TANs and Medicaid Pendings Update
LeadingAge Illinois Consultant Matt Werner, Werner Consulting
LeadingAge Illinois Consultant, Matt Werner of Werner Consulting, has provided his weekly update on Transaction Audit Numbers (TANs). Click here to access the TANs report and here for an update on Medicaid pendings.

COVID Test Positivity by County
LeadingAge Illinois Consultant, Matt Werner of Werner Consulting, has provided his most recent update on COVID Test Positivity by County. Click here for the most recent report.

CMS QSEP Training
A reminder today that Assisted Living and Sheltered Care providers have until March 31 to complete the CMS Mandated Training. Click here for the Quality, Safety & Education Portal (QSEP). Training can be done in a group setting. If you do it in a group setting, your staff will not receive individual certificates, so you need to do a sign-in sheet and keep a attestation log of who’s completing it. If providers don’t have CCN number, then instead of signing up under provider, use the drop down menu and it is the last choice (educator, researcher and another choice).

If you have any questions, contact Ruta Prasauskas.

Reminder on Accelerated and Advanced Payments
For those providers that took Medicare accelerated or advanced payments, the recoupment will likely start next month – April – because that is when a majority of the loans were made. If you took them at a different time of year, the repayments start one year from when you took the loan. Here is an article describing the revised terms of the Medicare accelerated and advanced payment program that passed in September for which LeadingAge advocated.

Real-World COVID-19 Vaccine Effectiveness in Healthcare Workers
A study funded and led by the CDC will evaluate how well COVID-19 vaccines prevent laboratory-confirmed, symptomatic COVID-19 in healthcare workers in the “real world,” outside of a clinical trial. The study, currently enrolling healthcare workers at 34 sites nationwide, is one of many projects analyzing the real-world protection afforded by COVID-19 vaccines. CDC is leveraging four existing programs, each with multiple sites, to evaluate COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness among healthcare workers across 26 states:

Arctic Investigations Program (AIP) – two sites
Emerging Infections Program (EIP) – 10 sites
Preventing Emerging Infections through Vaccine Effectiveness Testing (Project PREVENT) – 16 sites
Safety and Healthcare Epidemiology Prevention Research Development (SHEPheRD Program) – six sites

Vaccine effectiveness studies allow researchers to assess how well vaccines protect people from illness in real-world conditions. The real-world effectiveness of vaccines may be affected if vaccination process requirements, such as vaccine storage and dosing intervals, are less strictly adhered to than they were in clinical trials. These real-world effectiveness studies may also enable researchers to evaluate vaccine effectiveness in groups not included in clinical trials, such as people with underlying medical conditions. Additionally, they can help inform COVID-19 vaccine policy decisions made by the U.S. Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.

Life Plan Communities/CCRC:

LeadingAge National on Spring Reopening for Life Plan Communities:
As LeadingAge National Life Plan Community members know, one of our great current debates is how to reopen the independent living areas of our communities in a post-vaccine world. The essential question has become, how do we enable both vaccinated and unvaccinated people to safely co-mingle in both public and private spaces? And, along the way, how do we protect the privacy of people’s vaccination choices in an environment where some – especially residents and families – want to know if the people around them are vaccinated? LeadingAge National has carefully listened to and complied member stories, ideas, questions, and solutions on this issue. Here’s an article that summarizes these member solutions.

Nursing and Rehabilitation:

LeadingAge Media Materials for Nursing Homes
Human Rights Watch released a new report looking at nursing homes and COVID-19. US: Concerns of Neglect in Nursing Homes is based on interviews with 61 people, as well as responses to an online survey. The NGO asked LeadingAge to respond to a set of questions related to preliminary findings earlier this year. LeadingAge’s letter in response illuminates the challenges the pandemic created for nursing homes, and reiterates that LeadingAge and our members are committed to resolving the short and long-term challenges that the crisis highlighted. The report is available at hrw.org. A reminder to you all that LeadingAge has nursing home materials, backgrounders, releases and talking points from the past weeks and months that you can reference should you get media queries about the report:

Care For Our Seniors Act (webpage)
Care For Our Seniors Act (talking points)
Nursing Home Reform & Accountability (messages 3/13/21)
LeadingAge Statement on CMS’ Revised Nursing Home Visitation Guidance (statement 3/10/21)
AARP + Nursing Homes (messages 3/5/21)
LeadingAge Calls For Federal Government To Ease Nursing Home Visitation Guidelines(statement 2/24/21)
Nursing Home COVID Overview (backgrounder 2/10/21)
A Timeline of COVID’s Impact on Older Americans (backgrounder 2/10/21)
Paying For U.S. Nursing Home Care Snapshot (backgrounder 2/10/21)

Policies and Technology for Interoperability and Burden Reduction
We have had an inquiry in regards to the CMS information on Policies and Technology for Interoperability and Burden Reduction. LeadingAge National states that nursing homes do not have to do anything at this time. ONC has not put an enforcement mechanism in place, is still collecting information, concerns and guidance. LeadingAge is working on a letter to ONC with requests for a number of things for members. We will keep you updated on this issue.

Technology:

Register Today for 2021 Collaborative Care HIT Virtual Summit
Registration is now open for the 2021 Collaborative Care HIT Virtual Summit, to be held June 8-10, 2021. LeadingAge CAST convenes this annual summit, which will focus on the role of health IT in collaboration during crises.

LeadingAge CAST Debuts Data Analytics Selection Tool
As the uses of and benefits provided by data analytics technologies in aging services is growing rapidly, LeadingAge’s Center for Aging Services Technologies (CAST) released a Data Analytics Selection Tool. This new resource, which includes a white paper, interactive guide, online selection tool and comparison matrix, plus a provider case study, provides valuable resources to help LeadingAge members and other aging services organizations understand the range of data analytics technologies available in the marketplace.

University of Illinois Health App Study
The University of Illinois has started a project that will involve research participants for an IRB-Approved study to evaluate what motivates older adults to use medication reminder apps and what features are and are not wanted in these apps. Click here to learn more about this study.